D&AD Announces Jury for 2025 Awards
D&AD has revealed the D&AD Awards 2025 jury. The 63rd annual D&AD Awards will be held at the County Hall and Southbank Centre on the London Southbank. From May 18th to 22nd, 2025, there will be four days of live judging. The D&AD Awards Ceremony, marking the grand finale of the D&AD Festival, will take place on May 22nd at the Southbank Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Building.
Panels for 44 categories will be made up of 300+ leading creative experts from over 50 countries across the globe. These jury members have been carefully selected to come together for live judging of the past year’s best work across the global commercial creative industries, including design, advertising, film and entertainment. They will award creative excellence on the premise that creativity drives commercial, economic, social and cultural success and will recognise work that inspires the talent of today and tomorrow.
The D&AD Awards Ceremony will be held as the culminating event of D&AD Festival. From 21st-22nd May, 2025, D&AD Festival will gather 300+ global creative leaders and feature 80+ speakers across two main stages. The programme will include jury insights, interviews, panel discussions, and keynotes from the people behind the work, alongside taster sessions of D&AD Masterclasses, activations, networking opportunities, and a physical and digital exhibition of the 2025 D&AD Award-winning work.
Winners are awarded an iconic Pencil, the world's most coveted award for creatives working within the commercial creative industries. Wood Pencils are awarded for the best work of the year, Graphite Pencils are awarded for stand-out work that rises above the rest, Yellow Pencils are awarded only to outstanding work that achieves true creative excellence, and coveted Black Pencils, very few of which, if any, are awarded each year are reserved for ground breaking work.
Each panel of international industry experts will be overseen by a jury president, including respected creative leaders such as Pelle Sjoenell, worldwide chief creative officer at Droga5; Samar Maakaroun, partner and creative director at Pentagram; Pum Lefebure, chief creative officer at Design Army; Paco Conde, co-founder and executive creative director at Activista; Marco Giannelli (Pernil), chief creative officer at AlmapBBDO; Melody Sylvester, global managing director and EP commercials at Common People Films; François Rousselet, director at DIVISION; Kalpesh Patankar, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett; Johanna Neurath, chair at Thames & Hudson Publishing Ltd; Debbi Vandeven, global chief creative officer at VML; Gail Bichler, creative director at The New York Times Magazine; and Boyoung Lee, EVP | brand experience and digital innovation at Shinsegae.
New D&AD Award categories
Brand new categories dedicated to Brand Identity Refresh, New Brand Identity and Creator Content will be led by Frederico Gelli, co-founder and CEO of Tátil; Johanna Roca, Creative Venture Partner at Accept & Proceed; and Karl Haddad, head of global creative lab at TikTok.
Donal Keenan, COO at D&AD, commented, “Judging the D&AD Awards is not only a massive honour but a huge responsibility to uphold the integrity, rigour and standards that D&AD is renowned for. Entries to these awards actively support D&AD's mission as an educational charity by funding learning programmes that bridge the gap between education and industry. This is made possible by these top calibre professionals from around the world offering their time, wisdom and expertise."
The complete list of confirmed judges (by country) can be found here.
D&AD Awards 2025 is now open for entry. Key dates below, and for full details on categories, judging criteria, pricing and deadlines, please visit the D&AD website.
Tickets for D&AD Festival 2025 are now on sale. Book by midnight on Monday 24th February to get 30% off.
